As a singer, songwriter and live performer, Juan Gabriel was one of the genre’s greats — and all-time earners
WHEN JUAN GABRIEL DIED from a heart attack on Aug. 28, the Mexican singer-songwriter was enjoying a level of commercial success rare for an artist in the prime of his career, let alone a 66-year-old legend.
His last thee studio albums debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart, with his 2015 release Los Duo moving 138,000 units and becoming the top-selling Latin album of 2015, according to Nielsen Music. An active live performer, he had notched the highest-grossing U.S. Latin tour of 2015 — close to $40 million, according to Billboard Boxscore, plus nearly $10 million more from 12 dates at Mexico City’s Auditorio Nacional alone — all of which brought him to No. 18 on Billboard’s 2015 Money Makers list. At the time of his death, Gabriel had just launched a 30-city U.S. tour; he performed at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on Aug. 26, the night before he suffered a fatal heart attack as he prepared to fly to El Paso, Texas, for the next show.
Yet those numbers only scratch the surface of his worth.
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